To make sure I am politically correct enough for Ambersun and Mikus, my favorite Fascist poem, an addendum first:

The Evil is Usury, neschek
the serpent. . . .
The canker corrupting all things, Fafnir the worm,
Syphilis of the State, of all kingdoms,
Wart of the commonweal,
Wenn-maker, corrupter of all things.
Darkness the defiler,
Twin evil of envy,
Snake of the seven heads, Hydra, entering all things...

Pound’s remarkable reading can be heard here.

Canto XLV

With usura hath no man a house of good stone
each block cut smooth and well fitting
that delight might cover their face,

with usura

hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
harpes et luthes
or where virgin receiveth message
and halo projects from incision,

with usura

seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines
no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly

with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat, no strong flour

with usura the line grows thick

with usura is no clear demarcation
and no man can find site for his dwelling
Stone cutter is kept from his stone
weaver is kept from his loom

WITH USURA

wool comes not to market
sheep bringeth no gain with usura
Usura is a murrain, usura
blunteth the needle in the the maid’s hand
and stoppeth the spinner’s cunning.

Pietro Lombardo came not by usura
Duccio came not by usura
nor Pier della Francesca; Zuan Bellin’ not by usura
nor was “La Callunia” painted.

Came not by usura Angelico; came not Ambrogio Praedis,
No church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit.

Not by usura St. Trophime

Not by usura St. Hilaire,

Usura rusteth the chisel
It rusteth the craft and the craftsman
It gnaweth the thread in the loom
None learneth to weave gold in her pattern;
Azure hath a canker by usura; cramoisi is unbroidered
Emerald findeth no Memling

Usura slayeth the child in the womb
It stayeth the young man’s courting
It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth
between the young bride and her bridegroom

CONTRA NATURAM

They have brought whores for Eleusis
Corpses are set to banquet

at behest of usura.

I think that had Sarah Palin compared and contrasted the current American financial situation to Pietro Lombardo, Ambrogio Praedis and - heh -"St. Hilaire”, in the recent debates, she… er, that is McCain… certainly would be leading in the polls.  What points are made!  Who could deny them?!  How it stirs the passions!

Peteri, Anita hath a canker by Pound, he gnaweth my patience.  But you already knew that…

Well, if you don’t have Carroll F. Terrell’s Companion handy (now available in a single volume—highly recommended!), the relevant pages are here.

Pound favored abolishing the Federal Reserve, writing of Wilson and House: “They believed in government by an uncontrolled oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of doing anything efficient to remedy depredations.”

Vysu lobu,
/P

Sveiki!

Umm… what do the late 18th century & early 19th century references in Carroll F. Terrell’s ‘Companion’ have to do with Pound’s view of the Fed - which was established in the early 20th century?

Visu labu,

E.

PS - The US President Wilson, of course, was instrumental in creating the Fed.  But, what did you mean by ‘House?’

Also: Could you connect the dots?  That is, how specifically is the Fed implicated in the current economic crisis?  What was it that the Fed did (or didn’ t do?) that prevented the electorate from acting ‘to remedy depredations?’

In other words: are you contending in LOL’s “To mark the bailout’ thread that it’s the Fed that needs scrutiny?  Why?

* * *

Cedriņš wrote:

“Well, if you don’t have Carroll F. Terrell’s Companion handy (now available in a single volume—highly recommended!), the relevant pages are here.

Pound favored abolishing the Federal Reserve, writing of Wilson and House: “They believed in government by an uncontrolled oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of doing anything efficient to remedy depredations.”

Vysu lobu,
/P “

Sveika!

Edward Mandell House was Wilson’s closest adviser; Wilson called Colonel House his “second personality.”

Here is a view that ties in with Old Ez’s.

Vysu lobu,
/P

Sveiks!

Thanks for the vicarious elaboration.

But, my initial questions still remain unanswered:

“Could you connect the dots?  That is, how specifically is the Fed implicated in the current economic crisis?  What was it that the Fed did (or didn’ t do?) that prevented the electorate from acting ‘to remedy depredations?’

In other words: are you contending in LOL’s “To mark the bailout’ thread that it’s the Fed that needs scrutiny?  Why? “

Visu labu,

E.

The blog I linked to above contains numerous posts and links on the subject.

Vysu lobu,
/P

An alternate presentation of same.

/P

The problem of the present meltdown is that interest rates have been too low for too long.  That definitely is not usury!!!

What Went Wrong

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101403343_pf.html

Thanks, Ambersun. Interesting piece!

/P

These post are a bit humorous for the crises mentioned is something that obviously is a problem around the world and not something just in the states. Iceland borrowing money from Russia to keep from going bankrupt is an example.
There are so many blogs out there about the problem that one would never finish reading them before the problem was actually solved so I choose to ignore them unless it is done by a person educated in the world economy. Any Tom, Dick , or Mary (even Peter C.) can do a blog and to many people the post seems good because it confirms their opinion but not have concrete evidence to back themselves up in their arguments.
The only thing concrete about this financial problem is that deregulation in the world markets have bitten the world markets in the bottom and the people are paying for it. Easy money with nothing to back it up around the word is the problem and it will take some time to change the lending practices to where if you cannot show financial responsibility you do not get the loan. How many times in the last two weeks has the Russian Stock market shut down to prevent meltdown. To many people around the world think they are financial geniuses.
In the U.S.A I believe the bottom has been reached and there will be ups and downs around the 8000-9000 mark in the stock exchange and will in the next several YEARS rebound and I shall recover my 6 digit loss but I shall wait and hope.

Why the crisis in our financial system?  Because the powers-to-be decreed that every American had a right to own a home regardless of whether he or she could afford it!  When lenders flinched at the prospect of possible default, liberal bankers devised a system of derivatives to spread the risk, in the hope that, on the average, profits will cover possible losses.  Unfortunately, losses prevailed, and the whole system came crashing down.  Now, no institution has the resources to cover these losses, so these powers-to-be put it up to the taxpayers to sacrifice and save the system.

Sometimes I wonder if these do-gooders did this on purpose in their attempt to redistribute the wealth, knowing that the government couldn’t afford to let the banking system fail!

The meltdown was caused by Greenspan’s low interest rates. Ask him!
Low interest rates encouraged big banks to borrow and
it discouraged Joe Seekspaks from saving.
Back in the ‘80’s Australian banks paid 15% on CD’s.

PC claims his favorite fascist is Ezra Loomis Pound. (I know, I know… PC had instead said “favorite fascist poem”.) Briefly putting that information aside… So PC, who is your favorite role-model? Your favorite “soul-mate”? Your favorite “nice” person.
But shouldn’t the question be: why is PC still trying to be politically correct?

Sidebar: The writer of that favorite poem is indeed Pound (and PC told us of this), a poet that was associated with Mussolini. For the ones too young to remember, Mussolini was the leader of WWII-era fascist Italy. Pound was later returned to his native US to stand for treason as he had actively supported Mussolini, broadcasting from perhaps a pleasant Italian villa, “his” views via radio to Allied troops.
But Pound was able to avoid the death penalty, for his numerous US friends tried to persuade others to consider Pound to be a patriotic American who was only exercising his eternal freedom of speech. “After 13 years confinement, Pound’s treason indictment was dismissed on 18 April 1958.” And so without much delay, on the 30th of June, “he set sail again for Italy, giving the Fascist salute (…for old time’s sake or just plain stubborn?) to journalists when he reached Naples”.

Something that PC no doubt conveniently overlooks is that the driving force in Pound’s behavior/poetry was “as far back as 1914 Pound had written that the artist ‘has had sense enough to know that humanity was unbearably stupid. But he has also tried to lead and persuade it, to save it from itself.’ He wrote in 1922 that the masses are malleable and that it is the arts which set the moulds to cast them.”
Then to him, any divergent political system (as quite obviously to Pound, no contemporary democratic system had the proper “Pound” framework/attitude) that even hinted a support for his “logic”, would do. (Communism, no doubt quickly lost favor in the sight of Pound when Stalin started to squash and execute artists in Russia/USSR. Hey, Wyndham Lewis at one time, once fondly and beckoningly said he was the “Trotsky of literature”. ---Note: If it wasn’t for that demise-to-artists thing, it would have been the Russian language itself that still would have kept Pound from settling in Moscow.)

And how does Pound possibly relate to Latvia? (After all, he was brought-up on LatviansOnline website.)
Well, with the label of “fascist” immediately cast aside, the following two quotes by him then should start to garner interest from many countries: “the arts in their rightful place as the acknowledged guide and lamp of civilization” and “cultures were the product of races, and each had its own soul, or “paideuma,” of which the artist was the guardian.” But now another qualification needs to be applied, that the artists who first reflected/drew the culture’s soul were not artists at all, they were merely farmers, warriors, and statesmen. And it was only after the culture had become the rote, that THE artist took on the “role” of guardian. Yes, it was a noble thing for artists to do, to be now the “acknowledged guide and lamp of civilization”. And for awhile it was very operative as artists aided to make culture a national item. (---This is what thankfully happened in Latvia.)

But quickly the artist realized he/she did not truly have that role of sole determinant, as a livelihood could now be realized thru the “production” (opposed to the “creation”) of art … one might say (and no doubt Pound would turn in his grave if he did again heard the following words), commercialization of art.
So was it first the benefactors, then later the “street” sellers and buyers who actually assumed the role as “Pound’s guardians”? And this is what really irked Pounds. For deep inside, he “knew” he could never rise to that zenith role of guardian, until commercialism was completely removed --- oh, that modern-age benefactor of art, as kings and queens were no more to be found.

Knowing now of his very selfish motives, can the reader see why Pound spoke against his native US? Can we as well, understand his poems with greater clarity? Can we as well, do more without the PC approved Cliff Notes? (Humour here, as the companion piece is indeed interesting by itself.)

Mikus E.

There are many people out there blaming the USA for the financial problems but if one looks at the whole thing it is obvious that it is a global item( Russia again suspended trading today). Cheap credit and deregulation is the culprit but this was the whole world at fault.
As an investor in the stock market I have several spread sheets of funds around the world and as of today I have yet to find any fund that is earning money anywhere in the world market today. These are banks around the world losing money and not just the USA. This must mean that “I know more about the economy than McCain”
I expect to regain my money in about 2 years if the rest of the world cooperates.  I know that all of you are feeling the pain I am.